That Which You See
by LexusGrey
Summary: Shota makes Cara very angry... Cara punishes her, and it turns into something much more.  Warnings: spanking, D/s


Shota was stuck with the Seeker crew. With no foreseeable end to the torture. It was humiliating to her, being a witch and yet unable to free herself from these bonds. But she would do anything to stay away from that Agiel. She shivered just thinking about it, the memory almost causing pain to course through her body.

Cara sat next to Shota at the bar, to keep her from running, and on her other side, Richard and Kahlan shared the last available barstool. She flipped a bronze coin in the air and caught it in her palm, to catch the barmaid's attention.

She needn't have bothered. The barmaid was already staring at her.

"I'll have a mead," she said, sliding the coin across the bar. "And you?" she asked Shota without looking away from the wench.

"Nothing," Shota said tersely, sitting with her back straight and stiff. She would not even look as though she were enjoying herself in such a place, let alone in such company.

Cara smirked. "Nothing for her," she repeated unnecessarily.

"Of course, Miss," the barmaid said, hurriedly retrieving a mug and filling it with mead for the Mord-Sith.

"Actually, it's Mistress," Cara said lazily, leaning an elbow on the bar and resting her face on her palm. "Mistress Cara of the Mord-Sith."

Shota snorted.

"Please forgive me, Mistress Cara of the Mord-Sith," the wench said reverently, sliding Cara the mug and her coin back. "Please, keep your coin in light of my grievous error."

"Grievous error!" Shota shouted in a temper. "She's nothing but a common street thug!"

Cara smiled, but it was not a pleasant smile. In fact, Shota found it entirely treacherous, and she closed her mouth.

Turning back to the barmaid, Cara held out the coin once more, along with a piece of silver. She really was quite appealing, both her looks and her attitude. "Could I tempt you to offer me extra services in return for a generous... tip?"

The wench stared at the coins, as if she'd never seen that much money in her life, let alone been offered such. Her eyes flicked to the Mord-Sith Mistress's, and the delightful mischief she saw there made her stomach turn flips. She was intimidating, to say the least, and perfectly capable of inflicting unending pain, Emma was sure of that, but she also looked to be perfectly capable of inflicting unending pleasure. And that was a lot of money. She opened her mouth to accept when the coins vanished from the Mord-Sith Mistress's hand. Emma's eyes went wide.

"Shota!" Cara hissed, turning to the witch woman with fire in her eyes.

Shota didn't know why she'd done it. She should have no quarrel with how the Mord-Sith chose to spend her money. Even if that choice was atrocious and degrading to women.

"Put the money back. Now."

"I can't." She refused to look at Cara.

Cara struck her fiercely across the jaw, knocking her from her barstool and to the floor. Her Agiel was drawn in an instant, the low thrumming scream filling the air. "Get up, Witch."

Fearing the Agiel above anything but the Keeper, Shota scrambled to her feet.

"Apologize to the lady."

"What?"

Cara pressed the Agiel to Shota's ribs, making the woman scream.

"I'm sorry! I'm sorry!" she yelled between pitiful wails. The entire tavern's populace was looking at them now.

Satisfied for the moment, Cara holstered the Agiel and grabbed Shota by the hair. "You'll have to work off that money somehow," she said in a low voice, her meaning crystal clear.

Shota's breath left her, and she turned pleading eyes on the Seeker and his Confessor.

Richard shrugged. "You did steal her money. Just because you didn't actually touch it doesn't mean you shouldn't lose your hand."

"That is not funny, Seeker."

"Then it's a good thing I'm not joking."

She tried to appeal to the moral authority of the Midlands, but the Confessor would not look at her, so she finally turned her eyes back to the Mord-Sith. "Please, don't do that." She hated how small her voice sounded.

"I have no intention of cutting _off _your hand," Cara said sweetly. "Why would I do that when I can put it to good use instead?"

The color drained from Shota's face.

Cara thoroughly enjoyed making the witch woman uncomfortable. She enjoyed it even more that Richard and Kahlan weren't spoiling her fun. Of course, they did not like the witch woman, or they would undoubtedly be giving her looks of disapproval and disdain. "Come with me." She put her hand on an Agiel, just in case Shota thought she'd try to disobey.

Humiliated, Shota followed behind the Mord-Sith like a common servant, out of the tavern and into the night. "Where are we going?" she dared to ask.

"I told you. You'll have to work for that money."

"How? There are no mills here..."

"No, but there's a brothel."

Shota stopped walking.

When Cara turned around the witch was on her knees, tears in her eyes.

"Please," Shota whispered, trembling. "I'm afraid."

Cara actually felt bad for the smallest of seconds. She walked to Shota and put a finger under her chin. "I won't whore you out on one condition."

Shota swallowed, enjoying the gentle touch. It had been a very long time since anyone had thought to touch her that way. "What condition is that?"

Cara smiled, leaning her face close to the witch's. "That you be mine for the night. That you do as I say, you serve me in any way I see fit, including but not limited to sex, cleaning, and submitting to punishment."

Shota's throat went dry. Images assaulted her from all sides. "How is that better than being used solely for sex, by another?" she managed to rasp.

"Because it would be by another," Cara snorted, one eyebrow lifting as she stood. "That's my offer. Take it or leave it."

Shota found the Mord-Sith to be unbearably cocky, but she supposed that in her lifetime, Cara had earned that right. She had to try three times before her mouth would form the words. "I will take it."

Cara's face broke into a beaming smile. "Good. The first order of business is a spanking. You're already on your knees, so... just lean forward and put your hands on the ground."

Shota looked up at her in horror. "What? You can't possibly think I will do such a thing!"

Cara put a hand beneath Shota's right shoulder blade and forced her onto her hands and knees. "You will do as I say, when I say to do it, Witch. Or you will find yourself... servicing patrons at the end of my Agiel."

"Don't do this to me," Shota finally pled when Cara lifted her dress, exposing her underthings to the cool night air.

"I would be happy to grant your request if you make my money return, so I can have my way with that barmaid."

"Because you can't get a woman into your bed without paying for her," Shota growled, irrationally angry at Cara's desire to bed the bar wench.

Cara drew her Agiel in a flash and brought it down swiftly on the back of Shota's neck, knocking her out.

When she awoke, she was in a bed, and opened her eyes cautiously to take stock of her surroundings. The Mord-Sith sat at the foot of the bed, sharpening a knife. They were otherwise alone in the room. Shota's head was pounding something awful, so she touched a finger to her temple, healing the headache. And then she was overcome with a burst of anger so powerful she couldn't contain it, and she shot a burst of lightning toward Cara.

Cara flicked her wrist, deflecting the magic into the wall, and spun on Shota, fire in her wild blue eyes. "Are you insane?" she asked, her calm voice a stark contrast to the expression on her face. She tossed the dagger to the floor and grabbed Shota by the hair, forcing her to her feet and stripping her of her dress in one smooth motion.

Unashamed by nudity, the loss of her dress did not bother Shota so much as the fact that it had been forced from her. "You will pick that up and return it to my body," she said coldly. She'd had quite enough of being treated like a slave.

Cara took her by the elbow and propelled her onto the bed, pressing her onto her stomach with a hand at her neck, closing around the mark left by the Agiel.

Shota cried out, hands searching blindly for purchase, gripping the sheets in tight fists. The first smack on her naked bottom made her eyes go wide. "What are you- no!" she gasped when the Mord-Sith spanked her again, and again, and again.

Cara laid a steady rain of slaps to Shota's backside, alternating cheeks, working efficiently and dutifully to turn the pale skin pink, then red.

Shota gritted her teeth, trying to take the punishment quietly, but soon ended up whimpering with every smack, as Cara showed no signs of letting up. She had never been so humiliated in her life, and tears finally streamed down her cheeks as she gave in to the Mord-Sith's will.

Cara sensed the change as soon as it happened, and rubbed her hand soothingly over the inflamed skin. "Do you have anything to say now?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"What do you want me to say?" Shota asked shakily, and Cara's hand began falling swiftly again. "No! No!" she protested desperately, squirming and crying harder. "I mean I'm sorry!"

"You're sorry," Cara repeated.

"Yes," Shota promised. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"For trying to use magic on you," Shota cried softly. "I'm so sorry." She couldn't take any more pain. She wasn't used to it.

"That's it?" Cara asked, unimpressed, lifting her hand to strike again, but Shota's rushed words allowed her to pause.

"Everything!" the witch woman gasped when she felt Cara's arm lift. "Everything... putting a spell on Zedd, making your coins disappear, displeasing you so... I'm so sorry. Please don't hit me again, please." She despised the weakness in her voice, but was under no illusions that it wasn't there.

"What do you think you might want to call me?" Cara asked, tilting her head, bringing her palm back down to stroke Shota's abused backside.

Shota swallowed her pride and forced the word past a quivering lower lip. "Mistress."

"Mmm," Cara purred. "Now, ask me to spank you harder."

"No," Shota sobbed, having thought that if she said what the Mord-Sith wanted to hear, the punishment would stop. "Please, no," she begged.

Cara instantly began striking Shota's behind and thighs mercilessly. "I think you had better do as you're told," she suggested.

Shota had no idea how she could possibly take anything harder - the sting was starting to rival a brief touch of the Agiel. But she forced herself to obey, her voice loud and shaking with tears. "Please spank me harder, Mistress!" she nearly shouted, wanting to leave no room for her words to become lost before they reached the Mord-Sith's ears.

"Hm," Cara considered it, pausing to rest her hand on Shota's thigh. "Why should I?"

Shota longed to answer that she shouldn't, that the Mord-Sith should stop altogether and hold her, kiss her, whisper softly to her, but she answered as she was expected to. "Because, Mistress, I have been arrogant and selfish, and I deserve to be whipped."

"Very good," Cara smirked. "You can learn, after all. Tell me, now, how did you want to answer that question?"

"Must I, Mistress?" Shota choked out, laying limply on the bed, wishing she could avoid having to confess what she wanted.

"You must," Cara said simply. "What did you want to say?"

Shota swallowed back a mouthful of tears and forged ahead. "Mistress, I wanted to ask for a kiss," she whispered, "and for you to hold me, and speak gently to me."

Cara's face screwed up. "Why would you want that?" she asked, surprise and confusion clearly evident in her sharp voice.

"I am lonely, Mistress," Shota admitted quietly. "Much like a Confessor, everyone fears a Witch Woman."

Cara thought about the times Kahlan had confided in her, rare though they had been, about what it meant to be a Confessor, and how Richard was the only one to ever see her as a woman and not an instrument of cold law. She turned Shota over and pressed a kiss to her lips, awkward and unsure. "Is that satisfactory?"

Shota winced when her weight pressed her backside to the mattress. She didn't expect the kiss, and while it was far too wooden to be comforting in and of itself, the mere idea that Cara had done it in an attempt to soothe her comforted her. "Yes, Mistress, thank you," she answered, closing her eyes. "Will I be punished more for my insolence?" she made herself ask, her voice small and hesitant.

"Not right now," Cara answered. "Later, it will depend on things."

"What things, Mistress?"

"Whether you do as you're told."

Shota kept her eyes closed and nodded.

Cara considered her for a long time in silence, content to watch the witch's chest rise and fall with her breathing. She spoke suddenly, as if the words had just come to her in a rush and had to be released, when she had actually been thinking about them since Shota had admitted to loneliness. "Kahlan doesn't try to scare people, but they fear her anyway. You scare people on purpose. That's why they stay away from you."

Shota's lip quivered. "I have no choice," she said sadly. "What I view as protecting myself, others view as vile and evil. I do not attack unless provoked, and all who would enter Agaden Reach seek to take something of it for themselves. I protect my home, and in return, I am feared and hated."

"I enjoy being feared and hated," Cara said, tilting her head, studying Shota.

"I do not," Shota whispered.

"You're forgetting something," Cara reminded her, urging her legs apart and fiercely slapping the inside of one thigh.

Shota jumped, crying out, biting her lip. "Mistress," she corrected herself. "I do not, Mistress."

Cara glanced idly between the witch's legs, at the small patch of auburn hair that covered her glistening lips. One eyebrow lifted. "You take pleasure with women?" she asked, deducing from the evidence presented. "Not men?"

"I would take pleasure with either, were it offered, Mistress."

"What is it that excited you? I don't think it was the spanking," Cara said, trailing a fingertip over the red marks on Shota's thigh.

"No, Mistress, I did not enjoy the spanking," Shota admitted. "Nor did I enjoy the slap on its merit... but the slap left your hand so close to..." She gazed up at Cara, almost adoringly.

Cara was thrown by that look. No one had ever looked at her like that before, not even those whose will she had completely broken. She had received adoring looks, of course, but those of vacant, shells of men and women - adoring, but empty. Shota's head was not empty, nor her will completely broken. Cara faltered and nearly tripped over her words, just managing to retain her indifference. "I can offer you penetration, nothing else."

Shota's throat went dry. She had not expected any kind of offer. "If it is not with your Agiel, Mistress, then I graciously accept," she breathed, her voice rough and scratchy.

Typically, Cara would have used her Agiel in this situation. But then again, nothing about this situation was typical, and if she were honest with herself, the Agiel had not even crossed her mind as she made the offer. The uncharted territory allowed her to excuse her lack of taunting humor, and she shook her head. "No Agiel."

"Then I accept," Shota said in a rush, her legs shaking as she struggled not to let them fall wide open, in case the Mord-Sith was only teasing her. "Mistress. May I ask what you are going to use?"

Cara's fingers were already seeking heat as the witch asked the question, and she watched as dark brown eyes flew open wide, Shota's back arching sharply off the bed as she gasped wildly in pleased surprise. "My fingers, Pet," Cara answered unnecessarily.

Shota couldn't believe the Mord-Sith would grace her with a personal touch, and it brought tears to her eyes once again. "Thank you, Mistress," she panted softly, allowing her thighs to part now as one of Cara's fingers slid home. She had felt the Mord-Sith try with two at first, and was immeasurably grateful that her body's resistance was not forced away. It had been so long since she had done this, and she never touched herself in this manner, because it only made her long for what she could not have. "Oh," she moaned, lips parting, eyes drifting closed once again. She couldn't help the way her hips rose to meet the intrusion.

Cara sat to one side of Shota, the lone finger inside the witch the only place they were touching. She had planned to keep it that way, but she had never seen anyone so desperate for contact, not even her pets at the palace. And the way Shota kept murmuring thank you to her was wearing on her resolve. She pushed her finger in and out, enduring the pleas and whimpers in stoic silence, until she could stand it no longer, and shifted, straddling Shota's knees with her own, leaning her body down, covering the witch in a protective embrace while her finger continued to move.

The pleasure fled from Shota's consciousness in the wake of alarm, but when Cara did not strike her, she allowed herself to realize that the Mord-Sith was being intimate, and the pleasure returned in full. "Mistress," she breathed, her eyes shut tight, afraid to open them and have Cara disappear.

"Shh," Cara said, her voice not as harsh as she intended, and she kissed the witch's neck, soft, reassuring kisses as she brushed her thumb lightly over the woman's clit.

Two strokes was all it took, and Shota came undone with a powerful wail, her body jerking beneath the Mord-Sith, drinking in the sex and comfort and affection. She lay gasping for breath when the haze finally left her, afraid to hope that what she felt had really happened. She knew Mord-Sith, and she knew how they were about feelings, and if she wasn't careful, Cara would run screaming. Or punish her some more. "Thank you, Mistress," she settled for saying, keeping everything else to herself.

Cara moved off of the witch, debating whether to have Shota please her in return. Maybe later. Right now she would reward the witch's reverent attitude. "Let me see your behind. Turn over," she said, urging Shota to comply.

Shota blushed, and obediently turned over without question, the throbbing sting in her backside reminding her to behave.

Cara was reminded of her strength as she ran her fingers over the purplish bruises amidst deep red skin. She had not even used an Agiel to make these marks. A sense of pride ran through her, even as a small stab of regret snaked alongside it. The regret grew at the way the witch whimpered but did not try to evade the touch. She was behaving so well, now...

"I would like to get something to help ease the sting of your well-earned punishment," she announced. "I don't know if I can trust you to stay here while I'm gone."

Without being asked, Shota nodded and started to push herself up off the bed, assuming she would be made to accompany the Mord-Sith downstairs to retrieve it.

Cara raised an eyebrow, a gentle hand halting Shota's movements, pressing her back down. "That was a question."

Shota flushed with warmth at the implied trust being placed in her to answer honestly. "I will stay, Mistress," she said softly. "Do you wish me to hold my hands out for you to tie?"

"Yes," Cara said, fishing a length of rope from her pack, hesitating when she moved to tie Shota's hands. "No." She frowned, glad the witch was face-down and couldn't see her indecision. "Will you stay if I don't restrain you?"

Shota's heart sped up, pounding hard in her chest. She could easily run while Cara was away... she could jump out the window and be done with it. After all, the Mord-Sith had punished her like a child, and- She swallowed. And then touched her like a woman. Her voice came out hoarse when she answered. "I will stay, Mistress," she repeated.

"If you leave, I _will _find you," Cara warned, hesitating at the door.

"I will not stay out of fear of reprisal for leaving," Shota said softly. "I will stay because you have asked me to, Mistress."

"Told you to," Cara corrected, needing to make sure that was clear.

"Told me to," Shota echoed. "Please, Mistress Cara. I will stay."

"If I find you have moved an inch, I will not use the healing balm, and will instead put you across my lap and spank you again."

Shota groaned inwardly at the very idea. The Mord-Sith's difficulty trusting rivaled her own. "Yes, Mistress."

Cara was still unsure, but she pushed out of the room and headed down the stairs, heavy bootfalls preceding her emergence into the tavern area.

Shota did not move a muscle as she waited for the Mord-Sith to return.

Cara burst back into the room without ceremony, savagely stifling a sigh of relief to see the witch woman still on the bed. "Did you move while I was gone?" she asked, stepping to the bed and taking a seat on the edge, at Shota's left hip.

"No, Mistress," Shota answered truthfully.

"Good," Cara said absently, opening the jar she had brought back up with her. She coated her fingers in the soothing oil and brought them to Shota's naked backside, rubbing gently in small circles until she ran out of oil, and then repeating the process.

Shota tried to stay quiet but it felt so good she could hardly think straight, and she ended up pressing her face into a pillow to muffle frequent moans.

Cara almost caught herself smiling at Shota's obvious enjoyment of the healing touch. When she finished, she set the jar aside and leaned over the witch's back, husking into her ear. "See what happens when you behave yourself?"

Shota trembled. "Thank you, Mistress. So much." She swallowed at the feel of warm breath on her ear. "I will not give you cause to punish me again."

"Oh no?" Cara murmured, nuzzling her nose over Shota's ear and into her hair. "You'll be good?"

"I'll be good, Mistress," Shota promised, her breath catching at the attention.

"You'll be a good girl?" Cara continued, nipping at the base of Shota's skull, pressing her body against the witch's side.

Now Shota's breath left her. "I'll be a good girl, Mistress," she gasped.

"Mmm, you'll be a good girl for me? Just for me?" Cara mumbled into Shota's hair, rubbing her cheek forward until her lips reached Shota's other ear, and she pulled the lobe between them, breathing heavy against flushing skin. She angled her crotch into the witch's hip bone, creating friction along the seam of her leathers.

Shota moaned at the pressure on her hip - she knew without looking what Cara was doing. "Yes," she swore. "Just for you, Mistress... Cara... only for you..."

Cara wound a hand tightly in Shota's long hair as she rocked her hips, then slid them up and down to stimulate her throbbing clit.

Her movements grew more frantic as she neared the edge, and Shota grunted and moaned along with her, doing whatever she could to help. She thought Cara might like more talking. "You're the only one ever to bring me to my knees, to make me submit, Mistress," she panted lightly, flexing the muscles in her thighs and hips. "The only one I have ever called Mistress... the only one I will ever be a good girl for."

Shota's words went straight to Cara's groin, lighting fires between her legs on top of fires already there. She made constant noise now, rocking into the witch with such force it was nearly painful. Wanton cries left her lips, forced up from her throat; she didn't care what she sounded like. "Tell me... tell me you're mine," she gasped, mouth dropped open, head thrown back as she ground harder.

Shota's breathing was as heavy as Cara's, and she gripped the headboard for an anchor as she rode the Mord-Sith's storm with her. She could say that... She didn't have to mean it, she could just say it, say it to make Cara come. "I'm yours," she said weakly, quivering with fear at the words, despite resolving not to mean them.

The hand in Shota's hair gave a ferocious yank, forcing her head back, throat exposed to the cool air as Cara's wild blue eyes found hers. "You're not," she said raggedly. "You don't mean it." Sweat matted her hair and dripped down the back of her neck as she stared, never stalling the movements of her hips.

"It's hard for me," Shota confessed, her eyes welling up with tears. "I'm afraid."

Cara slowed her hips, but didn't stop moving. She put her lips to Shota's jaw, sucking and licking and biting softly, the hand in the witch's hair relaxing to stroke through it instead of holding it bound. She gently rolled Shota to her back and took hold of her hand.

Shota had been prepared for anger, punishment, and yelling, but she watched in awe as the Mord-Sith guided her hand between drenched leathers; felt the heat between Cara's legs as her fingers were pressed there. Cara wanted her to take over. She squeezed experimentally, watching bliss creep onto the blonde woman's face, watching heavily lined eyelids flutter closed, unpainted lips fall open.

"Please, Mistress, your pants," Shota said breathlessly, squeezing again, but wanting her hand inside.

"No," Cara said, riding Shota's hand, tipping her head back and grinding. "You don't get to go inside my pants unless you're mine."

The tears in Shota's eyes finally spilled over, trailing down her cheeks as she did the best she could to bring her mistress off under such restrictions. Thankfully, she was able to, because Cara helped the process, telling her how hard to squeeze and where to put her hands.

As Cara came back down, she slumped on top of Shota, content to just lay there and breathe while she recovered. After a long while, maybe a half hour, she tilted her chin up toward Shota's face. From her position she couldn't actually see the witch's face unless she lifted her head from Shota's shoulder, and she was too lazy to do that at the moment, so she settled for looking at the side of Shota's neck. "Why did you cry?"

Shota was taken slightly aback by the question. How could Cara not know that? Her voice caught in her throat as she tried to make it come, and her words ended up a little broken. "I was-n't good, like I pro-mised," she explained, then cleared her throat to get rid of the tickle.

"And you were afraid I would punish you?"

"No," Shota said, her voice sounding somewhat normal again. "It hurt to disappoint you, Mistress."

"What?" Cara asked, genuinely surprised. "Why would you care, if you're not mine, and you weren't afraid of being punished?"

"You forced me to submit to a humiliating punishment, Mistress, and it hurt more than I could stand, but you also gave me something that no one has thought to give me in countless years." She buried her face in Cara's hair and breathed in deep. "Attention." She paused. "I'm so grateful for that. I want to be good for you."

Cara considered. "But you don't want to be mine." It was a statement, but also a question. To see if she had it right.

"I want to be," Shota whispered. "I'm afraid to be, and I don't know how to be."

Cara considered further. "Given time, do you think you could learn to be?"

Shota didn't even want to hope for what that could possibly mean. Somehow she had found something with the Mord-Sith, with Cara, that she would never have expected, especially given the circumstances. "I would try my hardest, Mistress."

Decision made, Cara nodded. "It seems a mutually beneficial arrangement. You will stay at my side and learn to serve me in all things."

Shota's private, lonely world wavered and began to crash down around her in her mind's eye. The void was replaced with a warm tingling that slowly settled into a glow. "Thank you, Mistress," she said after a few moments of silence.

"Don't thank me yet," Cara said with a smirk. "I will spank you every day until you are completely, irrevocably and without question mine." She put her lips to Shota's ear. "Sometimes, in front of the Seeker, the Confessor, and the wizard."

Shota groaned, her entire body tensing at the thought, and she forced herself to relax. "I pray I will be a quick study, then, Mistress."

Cara laughed and nuzzled her. "I will also give you more attention than you can handle," she promised. "Constant attention. And I will provide for you, making sure all your needs are met."

Shota relaxed further. "I have never had such a thing, Mistress Cara. Thank you."

"Again," Cara said, a mischievous twinkle in her eyes, "don't thank me yet."

Two mornings later, after the group had gotten used to the idea of Shota traveling with them, Richard awoke to the sounds of crying and begging. His eyes snapped open, prepared for danger, and he froze momentarily at the sight of Shota across Cara's knee, her black dress rucked up around her hips while Cara spanked her. After his initial shock, he turned away quickly, to catch sight of Kahlan watching the scene, intent on it. A few seconds later he noticed the bedroll rustling, and his eyes roamed downward to see it moving rhythmically. His eyes nearly popped out of his head. "Kahlan!" he scolded in a quiet hiss. "That's rude!"

"Why don't you ever put _me _over _your _knee like that, Richard?" Kahlan asked, eyelids fluttering. "You're always threatening."

"Look at her, Kahlan, she's not enjoying it," Richard said desperately. "Don't do that because of her pain... please?"

Kahlan sighed and reluctantly pulled her hand from beneath her skirts. He was right, though. Shota was miserable from the spanking, not excited. "Will you give me my own someday?" she asked dreamily.

"I don't think you'd like it," Richard said, moving closer to her, pulling her into his arms. "But yes, I will. If you want me to."

Kahlan smiled and curled up to him, nodding. "I do."

Finally Cara stopped, and stroked Shota's blazing skin, feeling her pet tremble against her thighs. "Good girl," she whispered, running the fingers of her other hand through Shota's sweaty hair. "Undress completely, and gather some wood for a fire, then I will take you to bathe."

_Good girl_. Shota didn't know how amazing those words could feel until two nights before, and now she strove to hear them as often as possible. They meant Cara was pleased with her. They meant the end of a punishment. They meant she had been good for her mistress.

"Yes, Mistress, thank you," she said through her tears, wiping her eyes as she stood and removed her dress, then stepped from the clearing, into the woods, naked.

When she had gathered enough for a decent-sized fire, she returned to their campsite and laid the bounty beside the stone pit Richard had made (he insisted that she call him Richard, and not Seeker).

Cara put a hand to Shota's back and dropped a kiss to her shoulder, then led her off to bathe.

When they were alone, Richard raised an eyebrow and nudged Kahlan to sit up. "Your turn."


End file.
